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Recently I heard a pastor say two words that hit me like a punch to the gut.

I was watching him in a short online video teaching clip, when he referenced an article he’d read on a blog a couple years ago.

Before talking about the content of the article, he off-handedly quipped, ...

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Preaching is one of the most important responsibilities of the pastor in a small church context.

It’s important, not just because it is the most visible function of a pastor, but because it is one of the primary tools for discipleship.

As pastors, our primary job is making ...

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We are living more of our lives online than ever before. And our online time will increase for some time before it levels off.

While there are certainly a lot of downsides to this, there are also huge upsides that every church can take advantage of. With people spending an average ...

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It’s easy to criticize today’s worship music. Too easy.

“It’s repetitive!” “It’s too loud!” “It’s theologically shallow!” “And it’s repetitive!”

Similar criticisms have been made for every generation ...

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One of the greatest challenges of pastoring is coming up with something fresh to say to the same people week after week.

As a pastor, I’ve been preaching for over 30 years. Over 4,000 messages. For many years I would regularly run out of things to say – or, more accurately, ...

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Good leaders have strong opinions.

And they should.

But our decisions should be guided by the mission, not by our opinions.

This is especially true in church leadership. The importance of Christ’s mission should be communicated in everything we do and say. Including in subtle ...

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Small companies are fueled by passion, innovation and risk-taking. Small churches should be, too.

As companies get bigger, passion is often replaced by profits, innovation by budgets, and creativity by quality control. Big companies tend to take fewer risks because they have ...

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Pastorates are getting longer.

This is mostly good news for pastors, their families, and the churches they serve. (As we saw in my previous article, 8 Benefits Of Investing A Lifetime Of Ministry Into One Congregation.)

But there are a few inherent dangers to staying in one church ...

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There are a lot of bad reasons churches want to change.

• To keep up with trends
• To get bigger
• To have more available funds
• To appeal to a different group of people
• To break from tradition
• Because we’re bored
• Because we’ll die if we don’t

Some of them seem like good ...